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Hello and welcome to the history of England, Episode 35, 12th Century Life and Night's Tale.

I thought it might be time to take a break from the affairs of the kingdom, step back and ask what life would have been like in 12th Century England.

I plan to do a bit on each the three traditional components of medieval society.

These are the people who fought, the people who prayed and the people who worked.

There is one obvious submission from all of this which is the merchant who really don't fit comfortably into the medieval world view but will come to that later.

So what I thought I'd do is start off today with the first estate, the warrior class, the nobility.

And I thought one good way to do this will be to talk about the life of William the Marshal.

William is the first secular non-royal person to have a contemporary life written about him.

He is one of the most famous nights of his age, described by a contemporary as the perfect night.

He is the story of a man who rose from being a penniless knight to the region of England, a medieval rags to riches tale.

Before I do that, I also thought I'd like to tell you about the books I've used and found good throughout this whole process.

And if you wish, you can go and see those books with a few thoughts from me on the website, historyofingland.type.com, with a link to Amazon to buy them.

Since I've got some catching up to do, I'll recommend three books.

From the period of Anarchy that we've just finished, there were two.

So if you want a straightforward history, which takes a pretty sympathetic view of Stephen, go for Jim Bradbury's book, Stephen and Matilda.

But if you want something more in depth and peppered with quotes from the period, go for Edmund King's book, King Stephen.

For today's episode, I'm going to recommend a book I've drawn on a lot.

David Crouch's excellent book, William the Marshal.

It's one of those relatively rare books that manages to combine rigorous history with a really good read. You'll love it.

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